Chapter Eighty-Nine: Traveling Alone

Xiao Nan sank his mind into the mist-shrouded inner realm and found that the golden tracery around him had grown a little fainter.

“To activate the power of replaying and deducing scenes, it seems I still need energy.

That makes sense. Once it involves reenacting events, it is no longer merely a matter of deducing combat skills or honing real-world experience. There has to be some price to pay.”

That meant he could not use this power whenever and wherever he wished.

Fine steel had to be used on the blade’s edge; energy did not come easily.

From now on, only scenes of great significance, or situations more worthy of deduction, would be worth spending that energy on.

Having settled this in his mind, Xiao Nan stopped thinking about it.

After two clashes with the silver-white giant python, though he had been utterly and miserably defeated, it had not been entirely without gain.

He could feel that his spirit had become a little more tenacious.

At the very least, when he struck at the white python the second time, he had been calmer than the first.

That fierce, murderous aura had not shaken his state of mind.

The more danger one endures, the more anomalies one encounters, the more a person’s spirit and will are tempered.

Between life and death there is great terror, and also great benefit.

...

Tonight was no longer suitable for further spiritual training, nor for practicing the Divine Intent Body Tempering Method.

Feeling mentally exhausted, Xiao Nan prepared to rest.

After thinking it over, he took a jade box from the bundle beside him.

Picking up a stalk of Life-Origin Grass, he hesitated for a moment, tore off a small strip from its serrated edge, and put it into his mouth.

A thread of vital energy surged into being from nothing and erupted within his body. Before Xiao Nan could even feel pleased, he let out a muffled grunt as every muscle in his body tightened.

He discovered that as the vital energy flowed out and his blood vitality surged forth, a powerful cold yin energy seeped from his lower abdomen through his entire body, down to the five organs and six viscera.

It was like swallowing a mouthful of frozen water in the depths of winter.

Too much of a good thing.

Xiao Nan’s skin prickled with gooseflesh, and it took a good while before warmth returned to him.

“Zhang Shu’s information was right. This thing has severe side effects.

An ordinary body simply can’t swallow it whole. But if one can withstand this chill and directly absorb the vital energy, the benefits are immense, far stronger than a first-grade Blood-and-Qi Pill.”

No wonder it was the main ingredient used to refine a second-grade pill.

“What a pity that the increase in blood vitality is only slight, not much at all. It’s about the same as swallowing beast blood directly.”

Disappointed, Xiao Nan carefully put away the Life-Origin Grass, knowing that this still was not the best time to take medicine.

Though the sensation of hunger in his body had already faded to near nothing,

the process of physical optimization had not yet fully ended, and it still needed a great deal of vital energy replenishment.

The priority of bodily transformation was obviously higher than that of increasing blood vitality.

In other words, no matter how precious the medicine he took, it could only be used first to nourish the body.

Only after the optimization was complete would it then increase his blood vitality.

Of course he would not be foolish enough to use rare medicinal herbs merely to replenish nutrition; wolf blood would do just fine, so why waste such things? The herbs should of course be kept for raising his blood vitality.

“Still, that’s good. Once my constitution stabilizes, it should become a bit tougher. By then, when I take in the power of the Life-Origin Grass, it won’t be nearly so difficult.”

...

The next day.

At high noon, across the boundless grassland, a figure sprinted madly, drawing a long black line behind him.

His running posture was somewhat strange, like willow leaves tossed by the wind.

The tips of his feet touched the roots and stems of the grass, sinking only slightly without truly landing before springing up again. His whole body seemed to weigh very little.

Xiao Nan’s face had gained a touch of blood color, with a faint rosy sheen, as if bathed in the morning sun. His eyes shone brightly, making him look full of energy.

Not only had the color in his face changed, but beneath the black T-shirt, the covered parts of his body now showed smooth, bulging lines of muscle.

If Zhang Shu were here, he would surely be astonished again. In just a single day, this person had grown much more robust—was he even still human?

...

Ahead of Xiao Nan, a bloodthirsty wolf beast was fleeing at full speed, not daring to look back.

Feeling the killing intent surging from behind, it was nearly scared into collapsing to the ground.

It howled and fled for its life, trampling grass leaves into the air and carving a long trail through the grassland.

“Too slow.”

Xiao Nan tapped the ground with one foot. The old force had not yet dispersed when new strength already rose.

His figure shot forward, and with a reverse slash he swept his sword diagonally upward.

Sword light cleaved out a faint misty rain, followed by a soft hiss.

The black wolf’s head flew into the air.

The headless black wolf ran another seven or eight meters before thudding to the ground, its limbs twitching.

Xiao Nan lifted the wolf’s body with one hand, ignoring the horrifying stream of wolf blood, and brought it to his mouth.

Blood gushed and spilled as he drank it down.

A flash of red light passed across his face...

Feeling the fiery flow of blood vitality and the sudden surge of strength through his limbs, Xiao Nan shook his head.

“The blood of ordinary bloodthirsty wolves is no longer of much use. Fortunately, my body has now been fully optimized.”

His strength had reached roughly thirteen hundred pounds, and his blood vitality had also climbed beyond 3.5.

He had guessed correctly.

After the change in his bone structure, he had already broken through the threshold of the ordinary person’s one-thousand-pound limit. At this point, it was more fitting to call his body that of a ferocious beast than of a human.

“If I use the bear-barbarian physique as the baseline, then a first-grade bear barbarian’s constitution, strength, and defense can reach the level of a second-grade martial artist.

Then as long as I reach the limit of a quasi-martial artist, with blood vitality at 5.0, my strength should, barring mishaps, be around fifteen hundred pounds.”

Compared with an ordinary person, that was fully fifty percent stronger at the baseline.

Such a difference both delighted Xiao Nan and left him somewhat awed.

He suddenly understood.

Why, all these years, had humanity found it so difficult to deal with beast barbarians?

The clumsy and foolish barbarians were one thing; they were relatively easy to handle, able to be encircled and killed through planning.

But the beast barbarians, who were both intelligent and physically formidable, were much harder to deal with.

Especially when led by commanders and formed into battle arrays, they became even more difficult to withstand.

If not for humanity’s advanced technology supporting it, resistance by force alone would likely have already led to global collapse and utter ruin.

“The transformation is complete. It’s time to take the Life-Origin Grass and increase my blood vitality.

I really want to see—once the final shortcoming is made up—just how much stronger my power will become.”

It was hardly surprising that he thought this way.

From the first time he encountered a bloodthirsty wolf beast, when it took eight sword strikes to kill it, to now, when a single strike severed a wolf’s head, the improvement was nothing short of dramatic.

Today he had killed thirteen wolves in all, drinking their blood and refining it.

By the end, every bloodthirsty wolf that saw Xiao Nan would immediately flee; none dared bare its teeth and come near.

Without Zhang Shu at his side, he could push himself to the limit and strike with all his strength, utterly exhilarated.

“Hm? Still daring to show themselves?”

Xiao Nan’s spirit stirred, and he saw that ahead, amid the restless grass blades, six black wolves were charging toward him.

One ran at the very front, serving as the spearpoint;

two wolves followed behind on either flank, acting as guards;

and three more trailed farther back, spreading out and poised to pounce...

The six wolves rose and fell in rhythm, supporting one another.

A menacing charge.

“Have they still not been frightened enough by all the killing?”

Xiao Nan found it a little strange.

A strange, formless air of menace had appeared in the atmosphere, casting a shadow over his heart and making him deeply uncomfortable.

Mere black wolves, even if there were a few more of them and they formed some inexplicable formation, would not have been worth his concern before.

Now, with blood vitality improved, strength greatly increased, the body fully optimized, and his swordsmanship far more powerful as well,

even if these wolves were as clever as could be and capable of working together, they would still be nothing more than meat delivered to his door.

But things were never that simple...

With his spirit issuing an alarm, he did not hesitate and sprang backward.

Three parts faster than when he had come.